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Actually, this is what we used to do up until this year. Our main sponsor provides all of our chickens and briskets. He would give us whole chickens. Now he gives us a case of thighs for several comps. The whole, young chickens were a better product. I'm actually considering going back to the thighs from the whole chickens just because they are younger and more tender birds... and they are free.

If you were only planning to use thighs, I would never buy leg quarters. Too much labor....just buy bone in thighs, they're real cheap. I always trim them so they look as uniform as possible, and cook around 20 for a competition. That allows me the chance to pick the best and most uniform 6 or 8 for the box.

I trim the excess skin, but not too much. Otherwise it shrinks up too much during the cooking process.

I agree with Tedlor. Hind quarters may be cheaper but for the effort it's not worth it.